Govt is working on a roadmap for emerging tech

The government is looking at forming a comprehensive strategy to encourage and adopt emerging technologies such as Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data AnalyticsSurabhi Agarwal | ET Bureau | October 11, 2017, 08:41 IST

The government is looking at forming a comprehensive strategy to encourage and adopt emerging technologies such as Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics. The idea is not just to increase their usage in the official machinery but also to promote the increasing number of emerging startups in this space.

The exercise will also look at defining possible regulatory frameworks to take care of the privacy as well as other regulatory aspects.

Officials of the ministry of electronics and IT gave a presentation to the union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the first week of September signaling the first time that the government has decided to discuss a roadmap for these technologies. Some of the recommendations in the presentation, which has been reviewed by ET, includes forming expert groups or committee to study the potential and the possible use cases.

Ajay Kumar, additional secretary , ministry of electronics and IT told ET, “The idea is to work out a roadmap on how to make sure we have the requisite competency and capability so that we are able to exploit the opportunities.“ He added that there is already a policy in place for Internet of Things (IoT), along with a Centre of Excellence. “On AI, there has been a task force which has been constituted on how it can be more effectively used." Kumar said that in the past the government has followed a similar strategy for emerging technologies such as cloud, mobile, social media, etc.“Every time a new technology comes, you do look at it and try to figure out how you will leverage it.But the change of technology has become much faster now."

Technologies such as Blockchain, which are already being tested by some banks in India, could be deployed by the government for creating fool-proof land records which are not only digital and correct but also prevent multiple sale or unauthorised access.Blockchain is a continuously growing list of records called blocks which are linked and secured. When deployed, it can serve as an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties in a verifiable and permanent way .

The proposed working group on Blockchain, apart from suggesting large-scale use case in the government, will also promote research and application development along with promoting startups in this space.It will also study the policy implications such as privacy and the need for any legal amendments. As far as Big Data Analytics is concerned, IDC forecasts worldwide revenues for big data analytics (BDA) to reach $150.8 billion in 2017, up 12.4% over 2016. India's share is less than 1%.

The recommendations include taking “proactive measures to make India a big player in Big Data Analytics, set up a committee to study the scope of the technology trend and take initiatives to promote digital skilling and churn out more data scientists," said another government official privy to the discussions.

“A comprehensive national big data repository framework is needed for storage, analysis, interpretation, archiving, sharing and distribution of data," said the person. In fact, the ministry has already sponsored a project for customer analytics in banking sector post which a statistical and machine learning algorithmic model was developed to predict probability of loan default. India, which already has one of the largest users of the Internet, is expected to generate huge amounts of data, which if analysed can be put to actionable intelligence. The expert body set up by the ministry on AI is expected to advice on the most appropriate technologies for India. AI can have several applications in healthcare, law, railways, etc.

The presentation recommended planning government projects for deploying AI along with understanding ethical, legal and societal implications of AI.